low light mixes

drowsy

I recently had surgery on a broken collarbone & had to spend a fair amount of time laying around, recuperating, sleeping.  So I decided to make a mix that would work well with Percocet & Vicodin. I've produced other sleep mixes before, "I fell asleep at my desk making this mix", "slo mo", "slow & sleepy", and have often relied on them for nighttime listening.  Of course most of the mixes found here could work as "sleep" mixes. This new mix, "drowsy", fits right in with those others.  It's a soothing mix of drones & synth washes that will put anyone to sleep. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Benoît Pioulard - Drowsy
• 04:15    Ex Confusion - Bloom
• 09:45    Peter James & Disturbed Earth - A Descending Calm
• 13:45    Steve Roach - Slow Heat (excerpt)
• 21:05    Aglaia - Milosis
• 30:45    David Tagg - Wolf Suite II
• 34:40    Alio Die - Innamorato
• 42:35    Kyle Bobby Dunn - New Pures
• 45:35    Loscil - Stave Peak
• 51:15    Nest - Koretz's Meteor
• 55:55    Ursula - Un final decepcionante
• 01:01:01    end

psalms & lullabies

A friend of mine made an excellent Spotify playlist called "Atmospheric Songs for Travelers" which had some great music from John Martyn, Nick Drake, Wilco & more.(I saved it as my own playlist which is why name is on it if you click the link.)

Listening to that collection made me want put together my own mix of vocal music.  I don't do vocal mixes very often but I thought it'd be nice to do one now while all that music is swimming around in my head.

The songs are very laid back.  Most are acoustic.  Some new music(Antlers, Bon Iver, Horse Thieves) and some old stuff(John Martyn, Loudon Wainwright, Car Stevens).

Somehow the mix ended up with 3 covers in it -  Iron & Wine - Love Vigilantes(New Order Cover),   Josh Rouse - Straight to Hell(Clash cover) and Radiohead - Wish You Were Here(Pink Floyd cover). All brilliant covers.

I have some leftover vocal tunes that might make it into a new mix fairly soon.  Then it'll be back to good 'ol low light ambient.  For now, enjoy this vocal detour.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Bon Iver - Flume(daytrotter session)
• 03:25    The Horse Thieves - (I was) Crazy (About You)
• 07:55    J. Tillman - Earthly Bodies
• 12:00    Josh Rouse - Straight to Hell(Clash cover)
• 16:35    Cat Stevens - The Wind
• 18:07    Damien Juardo - Beacon Hill
• 21:05    Johm Martyn - Let the Good Things Come
• 23:55    Radiohead - Wish You Were Here(Pink Floyd cover)
• 30:50    The XX - Stars
• 34:55    The Antlers - Corsicana
• 38:15    Bon Iver - Wash.
• 42:45    David Sylvian - September
• 43:55    Loudon Wainwright III - Lullaby
• 46:45    Iron & Wine - Love Vigilantes(New Order Cover)
• 49:50    Alexi Murdoch - All My Days
• 54:35    Red House Painters - Song for a Blue Guitar
• 1:00:20    end

Shadowland

Josh, from Nocturne Records,  requested a Halloween mix.

At first I was reluctant because I'm not a big fan of dark ambient.  I've never really cared for Lustmord records, although I do have "The Place Where Black Stars Hang."  While I do have a fair amount of drone music I don't like dissonant drones.

When I set out to do this mix I wasn't sure what direction it would take.  Would it be noisy, scary ambient drones?  As I was looking through my music I came across "The Twin Peaks Archive" by David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti.  I thought, now there is some dark-ish music that would be cool to use in a Halloween mix.

Three Twins Peaks tunes made it into the final mix & helped establish a sort of film noir feel.  There are definite dissonant moments but hopefully the mix is more creepy & shadowy rather than outright scary & annoying.

It was fun putting this together and I'm looking forward to making this an annual ritual.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Bass Communion - Ghosts on Magnetic Tape IV
• 04:30    Felicia Atkinson - Half-Blonde
• 06:10    David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti - Mysterioso 2
• 09:30    Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer - rethikhiy
• 14:20    The Caretaker - Friends Past Reunited
• 16:00    Grouper - Soul Eraser
• 21:45    Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier - Maine Jungle
• 23:05    DJ Signify - The Sickness
• 24:20    Julien Neto - V(Rivers)
• 28:45    Deaf Center - Hunted Twice
• 32:05    David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti - Dark Mood Woods
• 36:00    Deaf Center - New Beginning
• 38:45    Aidan Baker - complex iconographical symbology
• 44:25    The Caretaker - Dream Waltz
• 47:05    David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti - Mysterioso 2 (film version)
• 49:35    Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Maximum Black
• 54:15    Earth - Dry Lake
• 57:00    Clint Mansell - Death is a Disease
• 59:27    end

autumn in slow motion

It hasn't felt much like autumn around here, with temps in the 70's & 80's the last week or two.  But the leaves are still falling and before you know it we'll have snow flying.

So I figured now is as good a time as any to publish this new mix, "Autumn in Slow Motion."  This is a fairly straight forward mix with a nice blend of old & new tracks.  As you can tell all the tracks have the word "autumn" or " leaves" in the title.  I'm pretty sure I've used the track by Eluder, "Autmun Hips", before but I just had to include it again because it's absolutely beautiful.

Normally I don't use my own pics for these posts, but the last two have been Low Light originals.  This one was taken last fall on a photo hike through a nature park in my neighborhood.  If you shoot a ton of pix one or two are bound to turn out.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    wind
• 00:30    Shuttle358 - Dead Leaves
• 04:50    Eluder - Autumn Hips
• 10:10    Need More Sources - Autumn
• 13:15    A Broken Consort - Leaves
• 15:28    Shinichi Hirota - Autumn Loop Rain
• 18:40    The Green Kingdom - Autumn Toadlick
• 23:55    Peter James & Disturbed Earth - Autumnal Nights
• 31:45    Brian Eno - Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960
• 37:45    Philip Sulidea - Autumn in Town
• 40:40    Spheruleus - Autumn
• 45:45    Jasper, TX - Through Dusk & Falling Leaves(Steinbruchel remix)
• 50:40    Aaron Martin - The Shape of Leaves
• 52:00    Tape Loop Orchestra - A Late Autumn
• 54:35    D RRadio - Leaves
• 58:22    end

future days

I guess you could call this mix "Televison Sky #2".  It's a continuation of the sounds found in that mix.

This has more beats than a normal low light mix, more of an electronica sound.  I think it has a nice mix of old & new material.  The oldest cuts are from Can, Eno & Earthstar, 1973, 1975 & 1981 respectively.  In the middle we have the Casino Versus Japan cut from 1999 & the Aspen track from 2000.  Then there are a few newer tunes like the ones from Tobacco & Maps & Diagrams.

I was happy to sneak in part of a long track from B. Fleischmann called "Take Your Time".  I listened to it recently for the first time in a long while & remembered how much I like it & knew that I had to squeeze it in somewhere.

I was also happy to have done the accompanying pic myself.  It's from a picture I took in New York & then messed with in my video editing software, rather than photoshop, because I don't how to use photoshop. :(   It's nothing great but it was fun to come up with something sort of original.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00   ATOM™ -  weisses rauschen (zweiter teil)
  02:44    Earthstar - Cafe Sequence
  04:13    Brian Eno - In Dark Trees
  06:15    Can - Future Days
  08:45    Field Rotation - lichtermeer
  14:55    Joey Fehrenbach - Don't Wake me
  19:05    Aspen - Are You that Retail Snob?
  24:05    B. Fleischmann - Take Your Time
  31:03    Black Dog - Rainbow Bridge
  35:07    Tobacco - Stretch Your Face
  37:49    Casino Versus Japan - Warm Windows
  42:25    Maps & Diagrams - Waking Up
  44:25    Digitonal - After the First Death
  49:40    ATOM™- weisses rauschen (erster teil)
  53:22    Boc Scadet - Ganymede
  56:10    end

porch music

"Several times I've seen the evening slide away. Watching the signs taking over from the fading day." - Brian Eno from Golden Hours This is music for sitting on the porch in the evening, as the day slips into night. The sounds of traffic, lawn mowers & kids fade away as the first stars come out. I stole the title from a recording by Fognode, which you can find here... Fognode - Porch Music. Brian Siskind is Fognode & he has some fantastic albums that have been released over the years. Definitely worth checking out here... FOGNODE. Enjoy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Susumu Yokota & Rothko - sentiero (from Distant Sounds of Summer)
• 05:00 Fognode - Verdant (from Porch Music)
• 06:48 Jacob Newman - Whispering Pulse (from Against a Quantized Sky)
• 09:02 Helios - Eclipse and Nafas
• 14:10 Simon Bainton - Sun Settlings (from Sun Settings)
• 16:00 offthesky - waiting to fade (from The Beautiful Nowhere)
• 19:22 Brian Eno - Pour (from Drums Between Bells)
• 22:55 Fognode - West (from Porch Music)
• 26:43 Po - Morning Poem (from The Sound of Summer Silence)
• 28:45 Hisato Higuchi - ai no tanjo (from Dialogue)
• 31;14 Daniel Lanois - New Smoke (from Purple Vista)
• 33:30 Loren Conners & David Grubbs - blossom time (from Arborvitae)
• 37:15 Taylor Deupree & Savvas Ysatis - for a morning when (from The Sleeping Morning)
• 40:40 Frederico Durand - elin (from Elin)
• 43:00 Brian Eno - Real (from Drums Between Bells)
• 49:10 Rain Cloud - Fades Alright (from Kerala)
• 54:20 Fognode - Duquaine (from Porch Music)
• 59:10 end

graceful silence

"Music is the space between notes." - Claude Debussy I found a couple of tunes recently that exemplify that Debussy quote.  So I looked for more tracks that had definite valleys between the peaks of synth washes or long pauses between piano chords and then I let the mix take off from there. The result is similar to the "breathing" mixes I've done before with the lulling ebb & flow that I like so much. This mix differs in it's use of piano & guitar tracks. There is a section in the middle where there really isn't a whole lot of "silence", more of an up & down of synth washes. But like happens so often with mixes, they just go places I didn't expect & then I've got to bring them back. "Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence and silence is full of music." - Marcel Marceau T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Antonymes - 311210 (from Like Rumours of Hushed Thunder)
• 01:38 Wixel - Vaarwel (from Somewhere Between The Sun and The Moon)
• 03:50 Danny Saul - Kinison part 2 (from Kinison - Goldthwait)
• 05:30 Good Weather For An Airstrike - Broken (from Winter)
• 11:00 Wixel - 10 minutes (from The End)
• 13:42 World Standard & Moose Hill - Graceful Silence (from Futari - Graceful Silence)
• 17:50 Stuart Dempster - Standing waves 1976 (from In The Great Abbey of Clement VI)
• 21:40 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Tuohy's Theme (from Ways of Meaning)
• 26:00 Celer - untitled #10 (from Compositions for Cassette)
• 36:39 Listening Mirror - Glass Slopes (from Spires, Spirals and Stones)
• 37:15 Jasper Leyland - they carry (from Sediments)
• 41:24 Dakota Suite - One Day Without Harming You (Machinefabriek remix) (from The Night Just Keeps Coming In)
• 42:33 Marsen Jules - Chanson du soir (from Herbstlaub)
• 47:00 Brian Eno - Neroli (from Neroli)
• 51:25 The Dead Texan - Beatrice part 2 (from The Dead Texan)
• 55:08 Antonymes - 291210 (from Like Rumours of Hushed Thunder)
• 57:16 end

an uncharted sea

"The loneliness you get by the sea is personal and alive. It doesn't subdue you and make you feel abject. It's stimulating loneliness." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh So much of ambient music has a beautiful ebb & flow that lends itself perfectly to sea metaphors.  Whether its bobbing up & down on the surface or plumbing the depths, ambient music music seems to fit well with imagery of the sea.

I could crank out sea mixes just using tunes with water, ocean or sea references in the track titles.  This mix does have a few tracks with obvious sea titles, but in general it's just another collection of tunes that have that "sea sound."
T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    foghorn
• 00:20    Stuart Dempster - Standing Waves 1976
• 01:41    Dolphins into the Future - Memory of Self
• 04:45    Enrico Coniglio - pastor et nauta
• 07:40    Brian Eno - Invisible
• 10:20    Alio Die - Suono Ipogeo(part 1)
• 12:50    Echospace - Reflection II
• 15:00    Burial - Night Bus
• 16:55    Dean Santomieri - The Boy Beneath the Sea
• 19:35    Andrew Chalk - Ukigiri
• 21:15    Beautumn - Everfields
• 27:00    M. Ostermeier - Central
• 31:30    Deaf Centre - New Beginning(tidal darkness)
• 34:00    Riceboy Sleeps - Sleeping Giant
• 39:45    Dolphins into the Future - Lone Voyager
• 47:35    Enrico Coniglio - Da Mar
• 52:15    Stuart Dempster - Standing Waves 1976
• 54:40    end

the stars above us

"Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another." -- Plato (427-347 B.C.) I realized that I hadn't done a stargazing mix in quite awhile and with the weather getting warmer & spending more time outside, I figured a new star mix was in order. So here it is... T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Sonmi451 - Cumulonimbus
• 05:30 Manual - As the moon Spins Around
• 09:35 Cyber Zen Sound Engine & Matt Borghi - Mars Infers
• 15:40 Robert Davies - Beneath Strange Stars
• 24:55 sgnl fltr - kwon
• 25:30 Frederico Durand - Mi Pequeno Mundo De Papel
• 26:25 Frederico Durand - El Mundo Secreto De La Montana
• 29:30 Staffan Wessman - Unison
• 34:50 The Winterhouse - Lost
• 42:50 Jonathan Hughes - Monoline
• 45:15 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Statuit
• 50:05 Loscil - Cheekye
• 55:50 Matt Thomas Wilson - Aviation Jargon
• 58:00 Jonn Serrie - Continuum
• 03:15 end

songs for staying in

On the heals of the last mix, which was sort of modern classical, comes another neo-classical type mix. I started collecting tunes for this mix after I heard Alva Noto's "Argonaut Version" in a Quiet Sounds mix.  I like that song & wanted it to find a home in a mix. Speaking of Quiet Sounds, there are some excellent mixes available for download there.  I wish Brian would crank them out more often. I stole the title for this mix from a song by The Tumbled Sea, which is next to last in the mix.  It just sounded like a good title & it fit with the crappy weather we've been having here. The mix ends with a sort syrupy tune from Anthony Phillips.  It may be a bit too sweet but it's one of those tunes that I have always liked, goes back to college days.  i don't know if I was hearing it for the first time now, whether I would like it as much.  I'm sure a big part of the song's attraction is it's nostalgic significance.  Anthony Phillips is the original guitarist for Genesis and back in high school & college I was a HUGE Genesis fan.  Actually I still am, but that was how I came to Phillips' music back then.  It was nice to sneak that track into a mix. Make some tea or coffee & enjoy "songs for staying in". T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Anthony Phillips - Wind-Tales
• 00:35    Ben Frost - Extortion
• 02:37    Alva Noto - Argonaut Version
• 09:20    Rave Degolith - Orchestrated version of Aphex twin's Xtal
• 13:50    Jan Garbarek & Eleni Karaindrou - Fairytale
• 15:25    Deaf Center - The day I would neer have
• 18:00    Julia Kent - Seul, pendant un instant
• 22:10    Philip Glass - Islands
• 24:45    Brian McBride - toil theme part 1
• 26:55    Field Rotation - Acoustic Tale 2
• 29:25    The Notwist - Jonas
• 30:50    Akira Kosemura - Hicari
• 32:30    Dustin O' Halloran - A Great Divide
• 37:45    David Darling - Darkwood IV
• 42:25    Antonymes - a heart filled with emptiness
• 45:00    The Tumbled Sea - A Song for Staying In
• 49:48    Anthony Phillips - Sleepfall, the geese fly west
• 54:22    end